Anne de Courcy

Anne de Courcy is a best-selling English biographer who is most often described as a social historian as she believes strongly that it is often difficult to understand someone's motives and actions without a clear picture of their times - and often, the context is almost as interesting as the character. Her biography Margot at War, written from the viewpoint of the Prime Minister's wife, describes the tumultuous emotions inside No. 10 Downing Street during World War One, The Viceroy's Daughters covers life at the top between the wars, while The Fishing Fleet is the story of a 300-year phenomenon - the venturesome young women who travelled to India in search of a husband. As nothing is more illustrative of a personality or an era than contemporary documentation, much use is made of personal diaries and memoirs, many hitherto unseen. Anne's life of Diana Mosley (née Mitford), of the wife of the Fascist leader and her biography of Lord Snowdon, which unravels his marriage to the Queen's sister - Anne is the only person to whom he has ever spoken freely - have been made into television documentaries. Her latest book, The Husband Hunters: Social Climbing in London and New York, is the story of the invasion of the 'Dollar Princesses' - the American heiresses who at the end of the nineteenth century managed to scoop up many of the most eligible members of the British aristocracy. It has already been optioned for feature film.